Topic: Staff Needs To Be Consistent With What's Allowed To Be Said And What Isn't.

I noticed that certain mods are ok with different things being said than others, like what caniswolfred saying god and joey considering it profanity yet someone like octane is okay with it. I think there needs to be a consistent list of what's okay that EVERY mod needs to adhere to.

@WebHead To be fair, we try to. We don't have a list, so I think it's always going to be a bit subjective. We have a profanity filter though. I didn't understand why Joey censored CanisWolfred, but his post was picked up by the profanity filter. As a non-native English speaker, I don't pick up on all the profanity, so that may explain it. Whenever I see something minor, I just edit the post without a warning. Unless it's explicit or an insult, then I let the person know. But sometimes a word slips through here and there. We'll try to be more consist though.

There's nothing wrong with saying "god". But we censor it when it's paired with "damn" because it comes up in our profanity dectector.

If that list ever happens, ''prolly'' should be on there.

Well, as you probably know I'm also not a native english speaker, and some of these words do fly past my head (specially the British ones)... But I just go by what the filter says. For the average user, I guess it is just learning from mistakes, and using common sense.

We can't provide a list of words because... Obviously... That would imply having a list of naughty words easily available on the site.

I know of a forum where their naughty words list is published. Makes sense to me as it helps the user know what to avoid, it helps the mod, and it provides a consistency for everyone.

I'd normally be ok with a list...but at the same time, a lot of the people on this site wouldn't read it anyway.

Ok here's what we'll do. Everyone must begin every post with "Hail Emperor SMEXIZELDAMAN" and after that you can type whatever you want. But we'll censor your post if that doesn't happen

Hail Emperor @SMEXIZELDAMAN! Okay, consider it done...your majesty!

So to clarify, if we were to remove the words "But we censor it when it's paired with" from the above text, it would then qualify as profanity (or at least be picked up by the filter)?

In other words, as long as something comes in between the words, "god" and "damn", it's all fine? So (and I'm pushing my luck here), the phrase "god flipping da..." ...well, that phrase - that would be okay?

I'm probably being facetious here. No matter what system is in place there's always going to be a way around it. But it's nice to have some clarification of general rules.

I got caught off guard a while ago for not realising the excrement-based anagrams of "carp" and "Sith" were not deemed equal in the of the profanity filter. In other words, "crap" is A-OK, while the other one... isn't.

It's obviously difficult to say what you're not allowed to say, but it's still good to know if at all possible.

@Maxz It just means it doesn't get picked up by the filter and we won't get notified. That doesn't mean other users can't report your post though

@Octane Right. Well, I'll err on the side of caution and use "golly gumdrops" when I need to express my visceral frustration and white-hot rage at the injusices of the world.

I normally use [insert expletive here] or something like that in my posts if I feel that stronger words are needed. That said, I don't often swear on the internet since I consider it a form of being "in public".

I have had one of my posts edited here before, but that was to fix a word in a post I had quoted. I generally don't have a problem with how mods handle the posts, but if they start censoring "gosh darn" or "friggin", we're in trouble.

...Wait, where does @Octane hail from?

@Maxz No offense, but this seems really obvious to me. It's the standard in a lot of places, no?

I'm long into the habit of keeping my online language about as mild as possible, anyway. Too much time on Miiverse.

Same. I've always found it weird how the C word is acceptable in websites that don't allow the S word.

@Zyrac On reflection, it seems pretty obvious that "Sith" is banned, although it loses some of its edge when used as a component in larger phrases, or as a positive descriptor (for example, describing something you're fond of as "the Sith").

At the time, I assumed carp, and pretty much all semi-slang words for faecal matter were banned along with it, so it caught be a little by surprise to learn it was okay.

This was all a while ago though. I'm a wiser geezer now.

EDIT: The two above responses suggest it's not a completely clear-cut issue. I mean, it is in case, but I think there's some logic in expecting both to be banned or neither. Not that I'm campaigning for that to happen. At all.

The banned one does have a harder "feel" to it than the unbanned one. But I don't think it's all that surprising that someone may group the two words together, given fulfil a pretty similar linguistic niche. "Poop" and the like are in a different category as they take a deliberately childlike tone to avoid coarseness of vulgarity. But C and S are much closer to being synonyms.

I find it amusing that "god d___" is censored here but "heck" is not. Because if you say "heck" with a certain kind of emphasis/accent it sounds a hell of a lot like the F word. And that's pretty much the main way I've heard it used in the wild.

Not that I think "heck" should be censored either. I just think it's amusing that a word that's essentially a way of saying the F word without picking up the censors is fine. Yet at the same time we're censoring people combining the word "god" with the one thing that imaginary friend likes doing the most.

As far as I know, "heck" is just a kiddy way to say "hell".

Anyway, please let's not start with the provocative messages. We wouldn't want to close this thread because someone derailed it into a religious discussion.

Depends on the context. If an American said "Damn you all to heck" then it would be a "tamer" version of hell. But as a counter example Australians in general aren't at all worried about saying "hell" because we're generally less religious. So here it's not at all unheard of for someone to say that something is "hecked" and I'm fairly sure that they don't mean "helled" when they say it.....

Words are way to flexible for simple censorship rules to cover everything.

I would also like to see management be more competent. I voiced a problem I had that went unanswered concerning a certain user that has been baselessly harassing others (myself included) since he joined, yet I've never (anecdote) seen a mod even issue a warning. Meanwhile, I've had silly but harmless posts deleted. Some consistency and/or proper action would be appreciated.